Breaking Bad Season 5 Episode 8 Recap: Gliding Over All

Walt is actually showing some remorse in this episode, not enough to actually do anything to make things right, but he does seems a bit affected by all the bad he has done, is doing, and will do. This mid-season finale is kind of a fast forward through the building of Walt’s empire. For a smart man I am not sure if he thought through this plan. This was a violence packed episode and it gives us all a lot to look forward to next year when this season continues. As a quick side note, the music is great in this episode. I have a couple songs mentioned after the jump.

Last week, he killed Mike in broad daylight and realized too late that it was unnecessary. This week we begin by cleaning up that mess. Todd takes care of Mike’s car by bringing it to the junk yard to be cubed. Walt is waiting for him in his introspective trance and we find out that Mike’s body has been in the trunk of Walt’s car this whole time. Before he and Todd can begin disassembling the body to fit in one of the acid barrels Jesse shows up.

Walt assures Jesse that Mike is gone, but he conveniently left out the part about Mike’s untimely death. When Jesse asks what they will do about the leftover Fring crew, Walt basically shoves him out of Vamanos Pest and explains that since he is out and it is no longer his business.

The DEA is trying to squeeze any info out of the Fring crew, but are unwilling to grant full immunity to do it. Hank is thrown a small bit of info by one of the crew, but we do not know what that info is.

Walt meets up with Lydia to get the 9 names, but she is afraid that once Walt has them she will be bumped off. She goes through this desperate pitch about the Czech Republic’s need for a meth provider. She even tells him that Gus was about to fill that position when he was killed by someone. *coughWALTcough* Walt finally agrees to try the Czech plan and Lydia, feeling safe, gives him the list of 9 names, now 10 with the turncoat lawyer.  When Lydia leaves the café we see that Walt had the vial of Rison handy. She was very lucky that she had something worth discussing.

Remember that Walt’s new protégé has an uncle who is connected in the prison system? Walt asks Todd to set up a meeting and his master plan is to have all ten men killed within 2 minutes. This is already a difficult request, but it is even harder when we find out that the men are in 3 different prisons. The uncle is a bit reluctant, but eventually Walt gets his way.

Cue the Breaking Bad Montage, this time set to Nat King Cole’s Pick Yourself Up, which is a cheerful ditty. We watch as each of the Fring crew is shanked with filed down toothbrushes. I think I should mention that this was a brutal scene, as each man had to be stabbed 30 plus times and in vulnerable places: chest, back of the neck, throat and you get the picture. They do change it up a bit by burning one man alive and tossing another over the railing after being shanked. All the while Walt is watching the second hand on his watch, tick tick tick…

3 days pass and Walt is bouncing his daughter on his knee while visiting at Marie and Hank’s place. Hank comes home and he is really upset over losing the witnesses on the Fring case. He asks Walt to stay for a drink and begins rambling about his first job tagging trees in the forest to be cut down. (I get a vivid Ferngully image here) and during this trip down memory lane he delivers my favorite line, “Tagging trees is much better than chasing monsters.”

We are then treated to another Breaking Bad montage this time set to Crystal Blue Persuasion by Tommy James and the Shondells. Walt is back in the kitchen and he and Todd are making their way through the tank of Methylamine. We get to see the process of Walt’s budding empire. They cook, weigh, and distribute to Declan and Lydia. Lydia meets Walt at a coffee shop where she leaves him a bag of money. Walt then brings the money to Skylar hidden in the Soda boxes for their car wash vending machines. Everything is running smoothly and Madrigal has started shipping to the Czech Republic.

Three months has passed and Skylar goes to visit the kids. Marie observes that Skylar looks happier. She wants Skylar and Walt to take the kids back because in order to repair the family they need to be together. Skylar seems afraid and when she arrives home Walt is outside in the dark staring at their pool. Perhaps thinking about all his evil deeds? They take a drive to a local public storage and enter a unit with a tarp covering a huge pile of money.

The sight of this is pretty overwhelming. Skylar begins to ramble about how she has no way of knowing how much is even there. The money has been coming in so quick and there is no way that they can launder it through the car wash. She tried weighing the money, but there are so many denominations that she has no amount for Walt. She tells Walt, “I want my kids back. I want my life back. Please tell me how much is enough? How big does this pile have to be?”

Walt goes to visit Jesse the next day. Jesse is not looking so great; he is home in the middle of the day asleep on the couch. He has obviously been doing nothing with his new found freedom. When he realizes Walt is there he grabs something before opening the door. He looks freaked out by Walt’s presence and mentions that Saul told him what he did at the prison. They stand awkwardly and reminisce about their old RV and how they started this whole thing. Walt leaves and Jesse finds his $5m outside in black duffle bags. He brings them inside and crumples in relief to the ground before sliding the gun he grabbed before Walt came in across the floor.

Walt goes home and tells Skylar that he is out. Earlier in the episode he had visited his doctor’s office and had a full body scan. We have no indication if anything is wrong, but his realization that he has all the money he will ever need and his willingness to give Jesse his share and leave the Meth game tells us something is up.

Hank and Marie are over at Casa White to visit and it looks like the kids are glad to be back home with Skylar and Walt. They are all talking and everyone looks so happy. We follow Hank to Walt’s bathroom and he picks up a copy of Leaves of Grass that Walt has sitting on the toilet tank. The inscription reminds Hank of the beginning of the Fring case and a conversation where he jokingly accuses Walt of being Heisenberg.

The End!